Tron Night 2010

Last Thursday my wife was kind enough to be my navigator as we drove a little more than 7 hours total to and from Oklahoma City to watch about 30 to 35 minutes of the upcoming Walt Disney feature, Tron Legacy. Or Tron Night 2010 Was it worth it? Oh yes, my friends, it most certainly was! While standing in line…for over two hours…we also received a bit of nice swag, a Tron Night 2010 wristband as well as a special Collector’s poster.

Now let me warn you that what I am about to discuss steps firmly into spoiler territory. So you have been warned if you choose…which you should…to continue further, I do promise not to tell everything I saw.

Just before the lights dimmed and the audience joined me in almost religious hushed tones, I felt myself suddenly becoming very nervous. Tron means so very much to me I hadn’t prepared myself mentally if what I was about to see turned out to make me cringe…

…I never should have doubted the filmmakers for a second.

1) Sam arrives at his apartment by the waterfront on his motorcycle, his apartment looks to be made of Dumont (Bernard Hughes IO guardian from the original film!) shipping containers. Alan Bradley is there waiting for him. Sam verbally busts Alan’s chops for a bit, while the older man smirks and we learn that Sam was arrested for a big stunt…possibly the parachuting from the Flynn Lives event? Sam Flynn comes off being more than a little arrogant in this opening scene, not unlikeable mind you, just a little too sure of himself. Alan informs Sam he has received a page from Flynn’s arcade. Collecting the keys from Alan, the young man takes a ride to his father’s arcade, shut down for over twenty years. Once inside after powering up the place, giving us old gamers a treat with so very many familiar sounds from our favorite games, Sam as we’ve seen in the trailer finds Kevin Flynn’s hidden workroom. Sam ends up triggering his father’s laser that transports him to the game grid.

2) Having been transported to the game grid, Sam looks up as a Recognizer shines a bright light down upon him, the young man can’t escape as the ground around him falls away leaving him stranded on an island. Security guards emerge from the legs of the Recognizer and after noticing he has no identity disc on his person they arrest him, strapping him in with fellow rogue programs. Soon Sam finds himself having his clothes cut off him by the Sirens, pale females clad in white leather, before a new suit forms itself around him and he is presented with his identity disc. The disc when attached to his back causes his eyes to flash digitally…not sure what that might mean to be honest. Sam is then sent upwards to stand before a throng of millions of program as he finds himself in an arena where very quickly he is fighting to the death, err, deresoultion.

3) Sam is rescued from a lightcycle arena match, not sure how as it has already happened, by Quora in her Light Runner. All of the lightcycle’s following them are destroyed, by mines dropped from the rear of the runner except one, Rinzler. Sam makes a comment that they have stopped following them and Quora explains that since they run on the energy of the grid they can’t follow them to the wastelands. We also notice that programs have increased emotions from those we saw in the first movie. Quora takes Sam to meet his father. I’m not going to spoil anything for this scene but I am not afraid to say that not only did the father and son reunion cause me to cry but something that Kevin Flynn says when he is first introduced made me tear up.

4) No way to avoid the spoilers on this scene, I am afraid, but as seen in the trailer Clu and his minions have light jets…well, in a very brief scene we see that Kevin Flynn and Quora have a…light bomber.

After all was said and done my head was just spinning, trying to catalog everything I had just seen, and not doing a very good job of it I am afraid. I will say that the theater was pretty full and everyone was excitedly talking about their favorite scenes as they exited the auditorium and Tron Night 2010. The real world scenes were 2D while the scenes taking place on the grid were 3D and very nice! It was a fantastic experience to say the least and I certainly cannot wait until December 17th to get here so I can see the whole film.

Searching through the alleys for useful knowledge in the city of Nostalgia. Huge cinema fanatic and sometimes carrier of the flame for the weirding ways of 80s gaming, toys, and television. When his wife lets him he is quite happy sitting in the corner eating buckets of beef jerky.

Greetings program! I was also lucky enough to catch the Tron Night sneak peak. It was an awesome 23 minutes that’s for sure. Your post pretty much sums it all up. I’m also looking forward to the full release in December.

I forgot to mention how strict security was, let me know if it was the same at your screening Commodore, but they searched us for recording devices and when the preview started the guards stood in the back with night vision goggles. It gave the whole affair a super secret clubhouse feeling. Ha, ha. :)

Great article VicSage! Or it will be..when I read the whole thing next month.
Glad you got a chance to enter the mainframe for a bit (yes? no? Yes!Yes!Yes!).

Next month will be TRON-tastic!

And hey, I saw Blinky carrying a box of pellets over at the Vault. So it’s official?
They say moving is the worst part of changing locations, then the fun of rearranging the furniture comes along.
You should still keep a Power Pellet in each corner. Just in case.

I forgot to mention that when I got home I put the poster and wristband under the blacklight to see if there was any Flynn Lives messages..unfortunately not. Though I hear there is something big being sent to us members. :)